User:ChildofMidnight/Bacon mania

Bacon mania refers to the enthusiasm for bacon in the United States,  and has also been described using the phrase Bacon Nation. The popularity of novel bacon dishes, as well as other bacon items, has been spread through the internet. Bacon's popularity in the United States has been traced to the 1980s and 1990s when high-protein foods came to be considered an important part of a balanced, healthy diet due in part to the Atkins diet and American lifestyle where fitness is not always paramount. Passionate bacon enthusiasts have identified themselves as bacon fanatics  or "bacon freaks."

Bacon innovation
Newer bacon creations have joined more traditional foods like the BLT, Cobb salad, clams casino and club sandwich, besides bacon's most frequent appearance alongside eggs and other breakfast foods. Bacon has also been adapted into products including bacon bubble gum, bacon band-aids, and bacon air freshener. The growing popularity of bacon has encouraged product introductions such as bacon salt and baconnaise.

Bacon food oddities include the bacon explosion, chicken fried bacon, bacon ice cream, and chocolate covered bacon, all of which popularized over the internet. A 2009 Baltimore Sun story describes bacon as being "more than bacon," and stated that for "obsessive and adoring Bacon Nation it's about cheap thrills and a chance for Internet fame." Calling it "like an extreme sport," the article described the innovators and enthusiasts celebrating bacon in all its incarnations.

Bacon organization
The increased interest in bacon has led to Bacon-of-the-month clubs, bacon recipe contests, blogs, and even "bacon camps"  have formed to satisfy the hunger for bacon in all its forms. Seattle hosted a "bacon camp" where bacon was celebrated by purveyors of an assortment of bacon dishes and other bacon-related items. The phenomenon has been described as bacon mania.

The Portland Monthly noted that "Bacon is such a quintessential breakfast staple, even vegetarians stake a claim to their own versions." A website called "Bacon Today" was started to provide updates about bacon related happenings.

Bacon indoctrination
The San Francisco Weekly reported on the first "BaconCamp" held "in solidarity with the growing popularity of events (see the recent Grilled Cheese Invitational)" and reported that the event "demonstrated just how much of a high bacon is currently on in terms of notoriety and how far people are able to stretch one culinary theme". The event included lectures on bacon as art, a Power Point presentation of the Obacon project (a recreation of the famous Obama Hope poster), as well as judging and awards. The slide show from the event includes a wide range of innovative food and decorative bacon entities. The San Francisco Weekly advised those attending to live, breathe, and smell like it" and to bring a bacon dish.

In and around Baltimore, Maryland, bacon has featured at various eating and drinking establishments. At Bad Decisions bar in Fells Point people clamor for the "Bacon and Beer Happy Hours" and bar in Baltimore redoes its whole menu for "Bacon and Beer Happy Hours" and serves big bowls of bacon on the bar (using up 30 pounds of bacon in two hours). A cafe in Hampden offers the Bacon Bulleit, a cocktail of bourbon, lemon and maple syrup with applewood smoked bacon replacing the swizzle stick.

The "Bacon Takedown" competition in Brooklyn, New York was held March 29, 2009 and featured 30 contestants vying for the best bacon dish. The winner was bourboun-bacon ice cream. The "Bacon Mania" ABC News segment on the event noted that $2 billion in bacon was sold in the United States in 2008 and that "with the bacon business booming... you might say our love affair with the breakfast meat is more passionate than ever".

February 28, 2009 the second annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Des Moines Iowa hosted a sell out event for more than 300 people. The event was first held March 1, 2008 on National Pig Day. It was founded by Brooks Reynolds, a Des Moines insurance salesman who had been going on summer weekend bacon pilgrimages before deciding to bring the fried feast to the masses. The event included a bacon eating contest. Atwood's Tavern in Cambridge Massachussets hosts an annual bacon eating contest.

Humor about bacon includes an April Fool's day story about a putative all-bacon restaurant and the supposed creation of "squeezable bacon" including a video advertisement.